


24 Days Of Ficmas 2017

by kamala_khan_for_president



Series: Life On The Farm-Verse [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Champions (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ms. Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Caroling, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Fluff, Frozen (2013) References, I Tried, Multi, accidentally setting self on fire somehow happens, awkward pym vs stark holiday drama, but drunk, possible angst, ya never know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-01-29 12:30:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 18,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12631119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamala_khan_for_president/pseuds/kamala_khan_for_president
Summary: 24 short stories for each day in the run up to Christmas. Each day will alternate between the Avengers staying at the Barton farm (Life On The Farm) and the Young Avengers and co in New York (The Next Generation).





	1. 1st of December

"Save yourselves," America yelled as she burst back into the base.

Everyone jumped to attention, grabbing the closest thing they could use as a weapon. Armed with several books, TV remotes and a frying pan, they waited for whatever enemy was coming through the doors.

But it wasn't a threat, it was Kate. She was humming as she came in carrying several shopping bags.

Billy glared at America. "That's not a Hydra cell attacking the base, that's your girlfriend"

"She's been playing Christmas music non-stop in the car the whole way home," America explained desperately. "We were stuck in traffic for two hours. Her Christmas playlist has like ten songs. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me"

"You were with us when Hydra attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy," Billy pointed out. "Our classmates were killed in front of us and half of our teachers turned out to be the double agents trying to kill us. How can you be this relaxed about all of this?"

Kate continued humming, completely oblivious to her teammates' state of alarm. She reached for a cord coming out of the wall in the kitchen and plugged her phone in. Seconds later, the sound of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer filled the warehouse, drowning out their argument.

Luna winced at the volume. "Good lord woman, could you play that any louder?" she screeched.

Kate sighed and reluctantly turned the volume down to one that wouldn't deafen everyone in a three-block radius. "Happy now?" she asked. Luna nodded, still rubbing her ears and wincing slightly.

"Want me to take those bags upstairs?" America asked.

Kate thrust the bags at her girlfriend. "Thanks babe," she said. America sighed and flew up to the top floor of the warehouse.

"You two went Christmas shopping already?" Noh-Varr asked.

Kate stared at him in stunned silence. "We were picking up orders we made weeks ago. It's bad we left it this long. Wait, have you not even started yet?"

Noh-Varr said nothing as he walked over to where the coats here hung up on the wall. He grabbed his off its hook and wordlessly put it on as he walked out of the door. Tommy, Billy and Teddy were all quick to follow him.

"I'll go with them," David said with a sigh. "They need at least one responsible adult to go with them"

"I should probably get going," Luna said, excusing herself from the whatever the hell this was.

When she left, it was only Kate and America left alone in the building. Just as the door closed, All I Want For Christmas started playing. America groaned slightly.

"Not this song again," she whined as she threw herself down on the sofa.

Kate laughed lightly and began to dance around singing. America groaned again and pulled a pillow over her face. A few moments later, she was pulled to her feet.

"All I want for Christmas is youuuuuuuu," Kate sang as she spun her girlfriend closer to her.

"You are such as sap," America jokingly complained. Kate laughed before closing the distance between them and kissing America softly on the lips.


	2. 2nd of December

"Look at these beauties," Scott marvelled as he opened the box that had just arrived, the delivery driver seemingly unaffected when the Hulk had answered the door. Scott had been quick to commandeer the box from Bruce. He was now opening it on the kitchen table where Wanda was making a fruit salad for everyone at lunch.

"Do I even want to know?" she asked, not even bothering to look up from what she was doing.

"Tony bought the most expensive child-friendly Christmas crackers on the market," Scott explained. "The most expensive ones had small bottles of alcohol in them, so we had to settle for these"

"What's even in them to make them expensive?" Wanda asked nervously, not entirely sure she actually wanted to know.

"Well, the hats are coated with gold leaf and the little toys are battery powered  _and_ the batteries are provided," Scott explained, getting more excited as he went on. "The jokes are still rubbish though". He pulled open one of the crackers and put one of the crowns of his head, the gold leaf glistening in the light. He pulled out the toy and placed the supplied battery inside.

"Are you sure those are safe?" Wanda asked. "Because that seems like very big battery for such a small toy, it's gonna overheat really quickly"

"Don't be stupid, it'll be fine. This stuff is top class, they're not going to set on fire," Scott reassured. Wanda watched in horror as the small light-up Christmas tree Scott was waving around caught ablaze.

"Scott look out!" she shrieked in warning. But she was too late. The small flame caught the edge of the crown and it lit on fire.

"MY HEAD IS ON FIRE!" Scott yelled, stating the flaming obvious (pun intended).

"WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT?" Wanda asked.

"PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT," Scott screamed.

Wanda looked around in desperation for something to put it out. So far, the gold plating had stopped the fire from reaching his hair, but it wouldn't last forever. She couldn't see a tea towel and the washing bowl was empty. That only left her with on option.

"I'm sorry," she apologised in advance. She picked up the fruit salad and threw it over Scott's head. It doused out the flames, but left Scott covered in juice with a small pile of chunks of watermelon, apple and grapes on his head.

It was at that exact moment that Clint, Bruce and Nat walked into the room. Bruce immediately began to laugh loudly, while Nat silently held up her phone to take a photo of the scene. Not that anyone could blame her, it was a funny sight: Scott Lang covered in fruit and wearing a singed paper crown with Wanda Maximoff holding the offensive weapon (an empty serving dish) in her hands.

"Do I even want to know what just happened?" Clint asked. Scott and Wanda both shook their heads in silence, neither of them entirely sure what had happened either. "Okay, then. Just and FYI, your mom's gonna kill you when she sees the mess," Clint pointed out. Wanda groaned and grabbed a mop, deciding to clean up before Laura could see.


	3. 3rd of December

"Thanks for coming with me," David said for what felt like the hundredth time. "I should've picked these up the other day when I went out with the others"

 

"It's fine," Kate reassured. "How much Christmas shopping did the others actually get done the other day by the way?"

David sighed and shook his head slightly. America winced.

"That bad?" she asked.

"They did nothing but eat free food samples for five hours," David complained. "They didn't buy anything, and I have no idea when they're planning on going and actually buying anything, if they even are"

"Oh, good lord," Kate muttered under her breath as they walked into the shopping centre. Behind her America faltered slightly, staring at the large crowds. "Is something wrong?"

America sighed. "I just can't be bothered with people today"

Kate put her hands on her hips as she stared her girlfriend down. "America, you can't be bothered with people any day of the week, today is nothing special, now come on," she chided. She reached out and grabbed America's hand and dragged her behind her through the crowded shops. It didn't take them long to reach the shop David needed to go to. They helped him carry his bags, America's superhuman strength being extra helpful.

"Shall we get lunch before we head home?" Kate asked. The other two nodded and they headed to the food court. Everyone went and grabbed some food, meeting back together at a small table tucked away in the corner.

"We are taking bets on when the others are going to buy presents?" America asked.

"I bet we'll be getting presents from them after the New Year's sale," Kate said.

David snorted slightly, almost choking on his milkshake. "2018 or 2019?"

The three of them all started laughing at the others, the thought of them attempting to fight their way through the sales crowds. They all knew that Tommy would almost definitely use his powers at least once, and Billy would try and stop him using his.

"What's the deal with Luna?" America asked, looking straight at David.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why me?" he asked. "Why would I know?"

"You're really close with Tommy, like borderline-dating-close by the way, so we were just wondering if you knew anything else," Kate explained.

"First of all, I know nothing extra about Luna," David answered after a moment. "And secondly, I am  _not_  dating Tommy Shepherd. And you two can talk, you were borderline-dating-close for months"

"And look how that turned out," America joked. Kate laughed slightly, but reached over the table and clasped her girlfriend's hand tightly in her own. The two of them met the other's eyes across the table. Kate smiled softly, and America's cheeks started flushing slightly red as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, you two are sickeningly cute," David complained. He leant back in his chair and folded his arms. "Like OTT on the whole cuteness thing going on here. Sometimes I think you're trying to outdo Teddy and Billy"

"Oh, shut up," America joked, whacking David lightly on the arm.

David began fake retching. "Sweetness overload, milkshake returning," he laughed.

"DAVID!" Kate mockingly scolded as the three of them descended into uncontrollable giggles, not really caring about the looks everyone around them was giving them.

***

"Hey, we're back," Kate greeted as they arrived home in the evening. David was struggling to carry two overflowing bags. America was effortlessly holding another three in one hand, her other arm linked with Kate's.

"Hey quick question: have any of you lot bought any Christmas presents yet?" Kate asked.

"I'm Jewish and therefore I don't do Christmas," Billy yelled, sounding slightly panicked.

"Same," Tommy half shrieked in mild terror.

Kate put her hands on her hips and stared the two of them down. "Well, last year, the two of you were happy to give us presents, and get some from us and eat Christmas dinner," she pointed out.

The two boys exchanged worried looks.

"We'll go tomorrow," Teddy promised. "And we'll take Noh-Varr with as well"

"I'm sure you will," America said with as much sarcasm as physically possible. Kate laughed lightly at her girlfriend as she helped David take his bags upstairs.


	4. 4th of December

"Dad!" Lila yelled as she burst through the door after school.

Wanda winced at the loud bang of the door as it was thrown open. She was sat at the dining table, maths text books spread on the table and her laptop open in front of her.

"Was that your sister?" Peter asked from her laptop. The two of them had set up a weekly video call, Wanda often asking for his help on her school work and him asking for the latest in Avengers gossip.

"It was," Wanda replied with a sigh. "We were able to ban Frozen for the rest of the year because we were able to convince Lila that it was a Christmas movie, because of the snow, so we were free from it for months"

"But, now it's December again," Peter finished. He grimaced slightly at her annoyed expression. "Well, good luck"

"Hey," Wanda said before he could end the call. "Aren't you and May coming here with Pepper and Tony this Christmas?"

"Yes..." Peter replied sceptically, worried about why Wanda was asking him this now. "But she doesn't know where we're going yet. I'm sticking to the whole 'don't tell them anything until they get there' rule"

Wanda smirked evilly at him. "It'll still be in the permitted Frozen zone then," she reminded.

Peter paled slightly. "Goodbye," he said hurriedly before ending the call.

Wanda laughed lightly to herself at the blank screen facing her. It was fun to mess with her friend. She heard the sound of small feet running up behind her. She turned around in her chair and came face to face with Lila and Nate, who was running along behind his bi sister, babbling away to himself with whatever words he'd learned, most of which being the names of his many aunts and uncles.

"Wanda!" Lila exclaimed in excitement as she reached her sister, grabbing the back of the chair as she skidded to a stop, her socks sliding on the laminate flooring. Nate didn't have as much control or coordination. Wanda threw her arms out and made a soft red energy shield stopping him from crashing into the table leg. She cooped up her baby brother and balanced him on her knee before turning her attention back to Lila.

"What's up?" she asked with a forced smile. She knew what Lila was going to say and she wasn't ready for it.

"I CAN WATCH FROZEN AGAIN!" Lila yelled.

"Yay!" Wanda exclaimed with a fake level of enthusiasm.

Lila grinned at her and then ran away, yelling at the others in excitement. Wanda sighed and gently rested her head on top of Nate's.

"Frozen bad," he said.

"Agreed," Wanda muttered.

***

"So, how bad was it?" Peter asked. He'd eventually called Wanda back later. In the background of the call, Wanda could hear the sounds of cars driving past as well as the occasional siren, the wind a constant bit of noise; he was obviously still on patrol.

"Terrible," Wanda complained, flopping down onto her bed with a soft thud. "I love my sister, I really do, but there are only so many times you can listen to a little girl sing very loudly along to Frozen. And I hit that number two years ago"

Peter laughed loudly on the other end of the line. "Oh my god, you have to see this," he suddenly muttered, sounding mildly confused.

"What is it?" Wanda asked worriedly.

Peter switched to video call and turned the phone around to show her the side of a wall. Wanda gasped at the sight of it. Somebody had spray painted the wall with pictures of the Avengers mid fight. Above them the words "where are they?" were written, the 'a' being in the signature Avengers A.

"People have been demanding to know what happened to you guys for a while now," Peter explained. "Things keep happening and nobody come to deal with them, like that building that collapsed in Hell's Kitchen a few months ago, and when I took on the Vulture and crashed a burning plane onto a beach earlier this year. They only ever see Iron Man, War Machine and The Vision in public. The compound still hasn't said anything about Nat leaving the compound over a year ago either"

"And there still hasn't been any official word on Thor and Bruce either," Wanda added. She paused for a moment. "So, people actually want us back?"

"Yeah, they do," Peter confirmed. "Maybe next year you'll be spending Christmas at the compound instead of the farm"

"You mean we will," Wanda corrected. "If we're back at the compound, we're going to be seeing each other a lot more often". Wanda paused for a moment before a creepy grin spread across her face.

"What?" Peter asked nervously. "Wanda Marya Maximoff, what evil things do you have planned for next Christmas?"

"There's a screening room at the compound," she grinned. "We can watch Frozen on the big screen". She let out a small cackle as Peter hurriedly hung up on her for the second time that day.


	5. 5th of December

A small brown paper package slid through the letterbox. For any normal person, this wouldn't be something noteworthy or particularly out of the ordinary, but for Luna, it was weird, what with her living in a glorified bunker and all. She stepped cautiously over to the door, grabbing her mobile phone and stun gun on the way; you could never be too careful. She picked up the package and instantly recognised the graceful curves of her aunt's handwriting.

"Aunt Wa- oh," she cried as she opened her door. Instead of her aunt, stood a girl a few inches taller than her. Her skin was a rich shade of pink and her long hair a soft green. A small gem was set into her forehead and it glowed the same shade of yellow as her eyes. Her t-shirt was a deep green with a pattern of three yellow diamonds over her chest.

"Hey Luna," she greeted softly, her voice soft and robotic.

"Viv!" she exclaimed. She threw her arms around the girl, who was quick to return the gesture. "What are you doing here?"

"Happy holidays," Viv smiled. "Listen, I don't have long, but that disc I just gave you has messages from the whole family, and some friends as well, about how much everyone misses you"

"How long do you have?" Luna asked.

Viv cocked her head to the side, deep in thought for a moment. "Approximately seven minutes and twenty-four seconds"

Luna ushered her into her apartment and sat her down on the sofa. She pressed a few buttons on her phone, before taking a seat on her bed.

"What are you doing?" Viv asked.

Luna didn't get a chance to reply as Tommy rushed into the room, carrying Billy in an undignified manner.

"Where's the fire?" Tommy demanded. He spotted Viv on the sofa opposite him and dropped Billy to the ground in shock. "Viv? Is that really you? Are you really here?"

Viv leapt up from her seat and threw herself at Tommy and Billy, who had pulled himself off the floor. Luna grinned at the three of them.

"I came to deliver a message for you guys from home," she explained as she pulled herself apart from them. "It's from your mom and your uncle and grandfather and anyone else who wanted to send something back to you guys. Dad probably would've said something too, but..."

Tommy cut her off by enveloping her in another hug. He felt a small wet patch begin to form against his shoulder and was reminded of the time right after the accident when she'd reminded him that even an android can cry.

A swirling blue pool of light opened behind them. Viv sighed. "I thought I'd have more time. It appears I was wrong"

"Well look at that," Billy joked. "Viv was finally wrong about something"

She sent him a death glare as she began to step towards the light. "I hate both of you," she shot back at the two boys.

"No, you don't!" Tommy shouted. "We're your brothers"

Viv laughed. "Half, actually. And thankfully too"

"Speaking of half siblings, send our love to TJ, would you?" Billy asked.

Viv grinned at them. "Don't worry, I'll let everyone know how much fun you're having here and that you don't ever want to come home"

Luna and the boys laughed at her final comment as she stepped into the light. It swallowed her up and then blinked out of existence like it'd never even been there in the first place.

"So," Luna said, making her way over to the sofa from her bed. "Who wants to watch the "we all miss you" DVD then?"

Billy and Tommy settled down on either side of her as she pressed play on the remote, the four of the laughing as TJ's blue hair and skin popped up on screen, wearing an elf's hat that went nicely with her pointed blue ears.


	6. 6th of December

Darcy sighed and turned the music up on her phone a little louder in the back seat of the car, desperate to drown out the sound of her parents arguing. She felt like she was a teenager again, only this time, Darcy had one up on her parents. They were going to see Laura, Darcy's sister. Her parents, Victor and Lucinda, thought that Darcy hadn't seen Laura in over a decade. They hated the man that Laura was dating, and now married to, and were determined to keep their youngest daughter away from him. They thought that it had worked, that their daughters had remained separated. And their brother, well, that was an entirely different story all together.

But they were wrong. They hadn't counted on Laura and Darcy's good friend Thor, who they admittedly knew nothing about, to reunite the sisters. So, when her parents offered to take her to Laura's and "meet her niece and nephews", Darcy just couldn't resist the fun.

***

"Oh, Darcy dear," Lucinda called, turning back so she was looking over the seat a little. She spoke with a fake posh accent that drove Darcy insane. "Look, we're almost here"

Darcy gazed out the window as they drove through the woods surrounding the farm. Darcy forced back the smile as she remembered the time she'd spent there over the summer, her little niece Lila leading her around the woods from the backs of the horses. It had admittedly been mildly embarrassing for Darcy that a seven-year-old had been riding around on a horse better than someone in their thirties. The car came to a still outside the house and Victor turned off the engine. As they were climbing out the car, the door to the house swung open and Lila cam racing down the stairs in excitement.

"Lila," Lucinda greeted with mild excitement when she saw her granddaughter. She bent down and opened her arms put ready for a hug, but Lila ran straight past her. "Lila?"

Instead, Lila attached herself to the legs of her aunt, who was quick to scoop her up and balance her on her hip with a practised ease.

"Aunt Darcy!" the little girl exclaimed, burying her head in her aunt's hair.

"LILA KATHERINE BARTON!" Laura yelled from inside the house. "What did I tell you about going outside without your shoes and coat? It's been snowing and we both know what happened to your sister. You're already poorly as it is"

Darcy stifled a giggle; she'd been told the mildly worrying/hilarious side effects of the medicine Wanda had been given the Christmas before after she caught a chill in the snow. It was also funny to watch the reactions her parents had when Laura referred to the Avenger as her daughter, they really hated it.

"What's this about Miss Maximoff?" Victor asked. He looked annoyed that the Avengers gad been brought before they'd even made it through the front door.

"Funny story that Laura was telling me last time I was here," Darcy laughed. She supressed another round of giggles at her parents shocked faces. "When Wanda was here in 2015 for Christmas, she stayed outside for too long and made herself sick. And then Clint gave her too much cough medicine and made her worse. Ha, classic Clint"

"Before you ask mom, Darcy was brought here by a mutual friend of ours when he was visiting a while ago," Laura explained. "He's been visiting me and the kids since the whole Accords mess. He's just inside right now, actually". Laura spun on her heel and walked back through the door.

Victor and Lucinda exchanged a worried look, before hurrying after their eldest daughter. Darcy smirked and walked after them, still carrying Lila. She heard her mother's shocked yelp as she came up the steps. Walking through the door, she was immediately washed over by the scent of freshly baked scones and tea. Darcy lowered her niece to the ground and watched her run towards the kitchen.

"UNCLE THOR, ARE THEY DONE YET?" she yelled.

"Almost," Thor promised. Darcy came into the living room, looking over to the kitchen where Lila had run. She bit her lip to try and stop herself from laughing when she saw Thor.

His long hair was pulled off his face in a messy bun, the style Darcy was certain he'd stolen from Bucky. He had cream on his hands from finishing off the scones he'd obviously been baking. And, to top it all off, he was wearing a pastel green apron covered in flowers and flour. Darcy snapped a photo of him on her phone.

"Please don't send that to Jane," he begged when he saw what Darcy was doing.

She grinned at him as she tapped her phone for a few seconds. "Little bit late for that"

"What is going on?" Victor demanded, his eyes barely leaving Thor. "Darcy Lila Lewis, how do you know this man?"

"Lila's your middle name?" Thor asked. He whipped Lila up from the floor where she was already nibbling on a scone. "Is this where the young lady Barton gets her name?"

"Yes, it is," Lucinda hissed through gritted teeth. "And put my granddaughter down right this instant"

Thor reluctantly lowered Lila back to the floor. She let go of him when her feet touched the ground but made no move to get away from him.

"Maybe we should all sit down," Laura suggested. Victor and Lucinda nodded. They took the smaller of the sofas. Laura flopped down on the larger one and Darcy mimicked her actions at the other end of the sofa. Lila crawled up between the two of them. Nate was sat on the floor playing with a stuffed toy Hulk. Thor brought in a tray of tea and began handing them out to everyone, except for Lila, who got a hot chocolate. He then came back with a large tray of scones which he placed on the coffee table before sitting down in the armchair by the Christmas tree.

"So, I bet you're wondering how I know Thor," Darcy said, addressing the elephant in the room. "Remember that internship I took with Dr Jane Foster a few years back?". Darcy waited for a few moments until her parents nodded. "Well, while we were in New Mexico, Thor crashed in the middle of the desert and long story short: my British boyfriend and I have spending time on Asgard a lot over the last two years because my boss's boyfriend is Thor. Which is how he knows Laura, because my brother-in-law is Hawkeye. Which you never told me about. I think it's your turn to explain Mom and Dad"

Lucinda's eye twitched slightly as Darcy felt Lila giggle slightly into her side. Victor rested his hand on his wife's knee trying to calm her down. It was all in vain, however, especially considering that his other hand was griping the sofa arm so tight that his knuckles had turned white.

"Mom are you ok-" Darcy began before she was interrupted by her mother leaping to her feet.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!" she shrieked, causing everyone else in the room to wince. A soft thud came from the upstairs of the house. Lucinda glared daggers at the ceiling. "What was that?"

***

The attic was the safest place to hide, and it was a lot larger than Wanda's room. The carpet underfoot was soft and thick, allowing people to tiptoe around barefoot without anyone in the floors below ever knowing that anyone was there. The doors were all propped open and people were walking about with ease.

Bruce and Natasha were lounging on one of the beds in Thor's room. Bruce was typing on his laptop and Natasha was curled up against his side, snoring softly. Steve was in his room, drawing pictures of Santa and his elves for the kids for Christmas. Sam and Bucky were sat in Sam's room. Bucky had been roped into the traditional hideout ball game. The two were sat on the two beds opposite each other, tossing the ball back and forth. Clint and Wanda were sat cross-legged on the floor on the landing, the chess board set out in front of them. Scott was slouched in the beanbags by the bookshelves, happily reading. After a few minutes, he snapped his book shut. Both Wanda and Clint's heads snapped up at the sudden noise.

"Good book," he whispered to them. He stood up and began to peruse the other books on the shelves. He pulled a particularly large hardcover book and read the blurb.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!"

The book crashed out of Scott's hand in surprise and landed on the floor with a harsh thud. Scott froze in horror. Everyone else to turned to look at him in panic.

Scott groaned lightly. "Oh, language"

***

"Mom, it's an old house," Laura pleaded. "It makes weird noises like that all the time"

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU," Lucinda shrieked as she raced out the room and towards the stairs. Victor was quick to follow her, Darcy close behind.

"Watch the kids," Laura ordered Thor as she ran after them. She dashed up the stairs after her sister and parents. When she arrived on the landing, her father and sister were stood watching her mother. She was running from room to room, opening every cupboard, trying to find a six foot plus super soldier in a kid's pink princess chest of drawers. "Where are they?"

"Where are who?" Laura asked.

"The Avengers," Lucinda replied. She came back out the room and stared at Wanda's door. "That room is normally empty, just a spare bed. If I'm wrong, then that's all that will be in there"

Lucinda threw open the door and took in her surroundings. The bed hadn't been remade and a pair of pyjamas were half hanging on the floor. A laptop and tablet had been left abandoned on the spare bed shoved underneath the window. Several bookshelves were on one side of the wall and a couple of rows were stacked with textbooks and exercise books and many chargers were all plugged into the wall by a bedside table. It was all obvious what they were seeing; this room was well lived in by a teenager.

"I can explain," Laura began. Lucinda stalked past her. "Mom, please wait"

Lucinda stopped in front of a door at the other end of the landing. "Does this go to the attack?" she demanded. Laura said nothing. "I'll take that as a yes then"

She swung the door open and hurried up a set of spiral stairs. When she reached the top, she was greeted by eight fugitive superheroes. Steve had grabbed his shield from his and Bucky's room and Natasha had her widow's bites. Scarlet lights curled around Wanda's fingertips. Everyone else had just grabbed the nearest available object, including the book Scott had dropped in the first place. Victor, Darcy and Laura came up quickly behind Lucinda.

"What is the meaning of this?" Victor yelled.

"Superhero safehouse?" Scott suggested, half joking to try and break some of the tension in the room.

Victor turned a deep shade of red, his nostrils flaring, and his fists clenched. His eyes landed on Wanda. "You. It was you, you little witch. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER?". He took a step towards her. Clint stuck an arm out protectively and shoved her behind him. Sam and Bucky both stepped to block Victor from Clint.

"Sir," Steve said in his best diplomatic voice. "I think it might be for the best if you just go"

"Of course, we're leaving," Lucinda declared. "And we're calling the police too". She grabbed Victor's hand and stormed down the stairs.

"I got this," Wanda muttered. She raced to Steve's room and opened the sky light. Pulling herself through, she quickly found her footing on the roof. She slid down the side and off the end, falling to the bottom and using her powers to steady her fall. She landed in front of Victor and Lucinda as they came off the porch steps. She thrust her hands forwards and red lights flew into their eyes and deeper into their heads. "You're going to forget everything you just saw and you're not going to call the police, okay?"

Lucinda shook herself slightly as the red lights mind. She smiled when she saw Wanda. "Of course not. Goodbye Wanda sweetie". She smiled again as she walked to the car. Victor followed her patting Wanda on the arm as he went. The two got in the car and drove away as if nothing had happened. Wanda turned around to see the others stood behind her on the porch.

"Well that was an eventful family reunion,"Darcy remarked, getting nothing but mildly confused laughter back from everyoneelse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was a little more intense than I anticipated. Also, have you ever made an OC and just wanted to punch them?


	7. 7th of December

"This is gonna be so epic," Tommy said as he began to unbox all the Christmas decorations.

Kate stared at them in mild confusion. "I thought you were Jewish. Why do you have so many Christmas decorations?"

"Don't worry," he reassured. "There's a load of Hanukkah decorations in one of these boxes. We'll keep the place nice and multi-denominational and hopefully nobody will get offended"

"Tumblr isn't here, it will be fine," Kate said a smirk.

Tommy looked between the kitchen and the balcony with the library and back at the tinsel in his hands. "Do you think I can get that to stretch between the library and kitchen?" he asked Kate, who had gone back to reading her book.

"Sure," she agreed without looking up.

He grabbed the tinsel and raced to the top floor and tied it to the railings. He paused for a moment and considered the angle. With the amount of speed he could build up from a standing start in such a short space, he would easily have enough momentum to land safely on the sofa. He took a couple pf steps back until his ankles touched the bookshelves and set off running. When he reached the edge of the platform, he leapt into the air. For a few seconds, everything went fine, but then he immediately crashed into the floor.

Kate yelped from where she was still sat on the sofa. "Tommy, you idiot, what did you do?"

"I thought I could jump as far as the kitchen up there," he explained. "Turns out I couldn't. I don't know why though, I've seen you guys jump from there and be fine all the time"

"That's because we know what we're doing," Kate exclaimed. "And we try and land on the mats, not the sofas like the buffoon you are. Wait there"

She ran out the room, grabbing her keys as she went. Tommy heard the sound of an engine starting and pulling round the side of the warehouse. Kate came back through the door and helped Tommy to his feet.

"Where are we going?" Tommy asked as they limped out the door. As they came out the door, Tommy spotted Kate's purple beetle.

"We are taking you to the hospital," Kate explained as she lowered Tommy into the passenger seat of her car. She ran around to the other side and sat in the driver's seat. She pulled out of the alley and into the traffic. They sat in silence for a few moments. "You're an idiot," Kate muttered. She turned on the radio just as All I Want For Christmas started on the radio.

Tommy groaned. "I'd rather fall from the library again than listen to this song one more time this Christmas"

"It's only a week into December," Kate laughed as she turned the radio up. She began to sing along loudly, and Tommy groaned, sinking into his seat and wincing as he knocked his leg.

***

They returned two hours later with Tommy's legin plaster. Needless to say, they were in trouble for just leaving a note thatsaid "@hospital, C U l8r".    


	8. 8th of December

Sharon stared at the box containing two kittens on her lap. "Tell me again why we're taking two kittens with us to the Avenger's safe house"

T'Challa laughed lightly from the seat next to her as he piloted the cloaked jet over the American countryside. "Sam Wilson asked me if I like cats. I do, and now I'm going to teach him why I like cats"

"And your way of doing that is giving him two cats?" she asked. "What if they're mean to him, won't that make him hate them"

"From my personal experience, Stockholm Syndrome plays a huge part in learning to love cats," he explained as the plane touched the ground. He switched the engine off and took the box of kittens from Sharon, grabbing his own bag from the floor. Sharon lifted her pink striped suitcase- which looked similar to the lesbian pride flag (he suspected that was part of her reason for buying it)- from the floor and followed him down the ramp.

"So where do you think this is?" Sharon asked.

"I know where it is," T'Challa said, looking puzzled. "They sent us the exact co-ordinates when they invited us here for Christmas"

"That's what I mean. I meant, where do you think this is to them," she explained. "This place has to have some significance to them, why else would they risk coming back to the States"

Before T'Challa could think of a reply, the door to the house was opened by a very excited looking Bobbi Morse.

"Sharon!" she half squealed. Sharon ran forward still lugging her suitcase behind her and threw herself at her friend.

"I haven't seen you in years," Sharon exclaimed loudly. A small cry broke out from inside the house. Bobbi cringed slightly at the noise.

"Well done," Hunter yelled from inside the house. He appeared just behind Bobbi holding crying baby. "You woke up Izzy. It takes literally forever to get her to sleep, unlike Skye". He turned his attention back to Izzy. "Why can't you be more like your sister?"

Bobbi lightly whacked Hunter in his arm. "We are not comparing our daughters!" she scolded. She took Izzy from his arms and shushed the little girl. Izzy buried her head in her Mom's shoulder and slowly stopped crying. Bobbi went back inside, gently rocking the little girl.

"Come on in," Hunter invited. "I would apologise for the mess but A) I don't live here and B) there's no mess, Laura runs a tight ship, she would never let that happen"

"Who's Laura?" T'Challa asked Sharon. She shook her head in confusion. The two of them followed Hunter and Bobbi inside the house and took in the homely place. A small woman with long brown hair pulled off her face in a loose plait was mixing something together in the large kitchen that was separated from the living room by a half-wall. Another person was stood on stall trying to reach something from on top of a cupboard. On the other side of the kitchen, a third person was hunched over a string of Christmas lights on the table and was attempting to untangle them.

"Hey Laura," Bobbi called. "Your guests are here"

"I heard," the woman with the mixing bowl, Laura, said. "Sweetie, could you show Sharon and T'Challa where they're staying?"

The girl on the stall stepped down and turned to face them. "Miss Maximoff," T'Challa greeted warmly. "How lovely to see you again". He turned to the woman with the mixing bowl. "I am sorry for not greeting you properly, but we haven't been introduced. I'm presuming that you're Laura"

"That would be me," she laughed lightly. She held her hand out, but quickly retracted it when she realised how much dough was on her hand. "It's very nice to meet you. The others weren't sure if you'd be able to come, but I had a feeling you would. Mainly Sharon would probably drag you over, so she could annoy her friends over Christmas"

"I never doubted you honey," said the man at the table.

Sharon peered over at him curiously. "Clint?"

Clint turned around in his seat. "No, it's Nick Fury"

"Dad..." Wanda groaned, rolling her eyes at him. Laura threw a tea towel at him.

"Don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?" Sharon asked Laura.

"I'm Clint's wife," Laura explained. Sharon stared at her in dumbstruck silence.

"I didn't see that on any of the S.H.I.E.L.D. files," T'Challa piped up when he realised that Sharon wasn't saying anything.

"Nick kept it out of the files so that we could live peacefully," Laura explained. "Other than the never-ending parade of superheroes that my husband keeps dragging home, it's worked so far"

"When?" Sharon demanded. "When did you get married Clint Barton? And why did you never tell me?"

"I was married before I even joined S.H.I.E.L.D." Clint explained. He looked over at Sharon. "Oh, close your mouth, you haven't seen the kids yet"

"Wait, what?!" Sharon shrieked. "You have children? This is easily the weirdest day of my life"

"Do you want me to show you where you're staying?" Wanda offered.

"Yes," Sharon said, eager to get out of the situation quickly. Wanda smirked and lead Sharon and T'Challa out the room and up the stairs. She opened the door to a room at the other end of the landing.

"You'll be staying in here with me," Wanda said to Sharon. "We're expecting a load more people to arrive for Christmas, so we're going to be pushed for space. Your bed is the one over by the window"

"That's cool," Sharon reassured. She walked over to the bed and dumped her suitcase on the bed. She peered out the window. "I can see Steve forces the others to run laps of the fields from here"

Wanda laughed lightly. "He does that. Spider-Man said it was like a real-life version of Captain America's Fitness Challenge. Be careful or he will drag you in to it"

"Well consider us warned," T'Challa smiled. He looked down at the box of kittens and then back at Wanda. "Which room is Sam's?"

Wanda supressed a giggle, remembering when Sam told her about the whole "you like cats?" incident in Berlin the year before. "Are those for him?"

"They are his Christmas present," T'Challa explained. "I thought that it would be best if I showed him why I like cats"

"That is a great plan," Wanda said with a mischievous look on her face. "And there is a spare bed in his room, if you would like to stay in there"

T'Challa returned her smile. "That sounds like a great idea"

Wanda lead him back out her room and down the landing. She opened another door to reveal another flight of stairs. She raced ahead of T'Challa, who followed her as she went into a room with a falcon on the door. She took the box of kittens off T'Challa and placed it on the bed furthest from the door.

"This is Sam's," she said as she opened the box. "You can take the other bed". T'Challa placed his stuff down on the other bed as the two black kittens clambered out of the box and began to make themselves at home on the bed.

"I have a feeling that Sam is going to find this very amusing when he gets back," T'Challa laughed. Wanda snickered slightly.

"I'll leave you to unpack," Wanda said. "I think Sam and the others will be back in a minute. Also, please tell me at dinner how he reacts to a pair of kittens making themselves at home on his bed"

T'Challa promised her that he would before she left the room. A few moments later, he heard the sound of people coming back inside and footsteps heading up the stairs. Sam came into his room and did a double take when he saw the kittens.

"And what do we have here?"

***

"And then he is so bad with cats that I have to instruct him on how to pick one up," T'Challa told the others that night over dinner. The others all laughed along with him, except for Sam: he just glared into his dinner.

"So, what are you going to name them?" Sharon asked.

"Well, I think Panther would be a pretty cool name for one of them," Sam said. "But I'm not sure about the other little guy"

"Listen to him," T'Challa laughed. "He's a cat person already". Sam scowled at him over his glass of water.

"What about Mittens?" Lila suggested. "That's a good name for a cat"

Sam considered her idea for a moment. "Panther and Mittens. Sure, why not? At least I didn't name my chickens after the KFC menu"

Sharon choked slightly on her drink and stared at the others in shock as they began to fill her in on that story. It seemed she and T'Challa were going to have fun that Christmas.


	9. 9th of December

“Happy holidays and welcome to the Young Avengers non-religious holiday party!” Teddy greeted as the Champions came through the door. In the weeks since the team had been brought together, they hadn’t actually seen the Young Avengers much, despite the fact they were currently, and temporarily, operating out of their basement.

“There’s a story behind not calling it a Christmas party isn’t there?” Miles asked.

Kamala looked past him to the decorations on the wall. “Yeah, and I feel like the ‘Happy Chanukah’ banners on the wall might have something to do with it”

Miles stared at her with a deadpan expression on his face. Teddy steered them all away from the decorations and to where the mats usually were. Instead, they’d been shoved to the side to make room for a makeshift dancefloor. Noh-Varr was stood behind a set of turntables and speakers, doing something with the wires. He was also shirtless. Everybody else was stood on the dancefloor, watching him and waiting.

“If you guys could just give me a minute,” he muttered to himself, plugging one particular wire into every available socket. Eventually a small green light came on the console and Noh grinned. “And done”

He pressed a button the room was filled with lights and music. Kamala laughed lightly at the sight of it; if you’d told her just a few months ago she’d be standing in a room full of other teen superheroes, partying and celebrating the holidays together, she would never have believed it. When she’d first gotten her powers, it wasn’t safe at first to go out there and be Ms. Marvel, not after the Accords. But now, looking around the room, she was glad she did become a superhero, if this was where it had lead her.

“You look way too deep in thought to be enjoying this party properly,” Luna commented, snapping Kamala out of her thoughts and back to reality.

“I’m a nerd, so I don’t really have that much experience with parties,” Kamala said. “But staring off into space and zoning out is my speciality”

Luna laughed at her. “Come on,” she insisted, reaching out and grabbing Kamala’s arm. “Join everyone on the dancefloor. I have a feeling that your polymorphism could make for an interesting conga”

Kamala snorted as she allowed Luna to lead her onto the dancefloor, Miles and Amadeus quickly joining them. And Luna was right, having superpowers at a party did make everything more fun.

***

It was a few hours before the party stopped. It was late, and everyone was tired. Kate and America were sleepily swaying together in the corner to slow music playing from Kate’s phone. Teddy and Billy were lying intertwined on one of the sofas. Tommy and Luna were asleep on the other, lying top-to-toe. Noh-Varr had even put on a shirt. Kamala yawned.

“You guys go and get some sleep,” David instructed. “You’re in charge of the base for a few days”

“Where are you going?” Miles asked.

“We’re going to visit some friends”


	10. 10th of December

“But Halloween was over a month ago,” Clint argued. He held the copy of Nightmare Before Christmas high above his children’s heads.

“But Dad,” Lila whined. “It’s called Nightmare Before _Christmas_ , so it’s a Christmas movie as well”

Clint stared at his wife in despair and mouthed for help. She stood up and left the kitchen without a word, leaving Clint without any backup.

Cooper decided to add his thoughts to the conversation. “Didn’t you say that we couldn’t watch it on Halloween because it was a Christmas movie and that we had to wait until December?” Cooper reminded him.

“You weren’t meant to remember that,” Clint muttered to himself. Cooper started beaming with pride, much to his father’s annoyance.

Natasha chose the wrong moment to walk into the room.

“Auntie Nat!” Lila yelled. She leapt up from where she was sat and threw herself with all the force she could muster at Nat and clung to her legs. “Tell Daddy that Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie, not a Halloween one!”

The blood seemed to drain from Nat’s face as Lila spoke; she hated that movie almost as much as Clint. She stared down at Lila for a moment, before smirking slightly.

“You’re completely right Lila,” she exclaimed with a level of sarcasm that only another former spy could understand. “You can definitely watch it now if you want”

Lila grinned at her. “So, you’ll gonna watch it with us?” she asked.

“Natasha,” Bruce called as he came down the stairs.

A sly grin spread on Nat’s face. “I really would, but I promised Bruce that we would do this, arm, thing”. She glared at him in a way that could only be described as loving. He nodded rapidly and “led” her out of the room.

Lila sighed. “I guess it’s just us then”. She stared at Clint and he knew that he had no way out of this. Unless…

“You two wait here,” he instructed as he began to leave the room. He ran up the stairs to the refurbished attic. He stopped outside the door to Bucky and Steve’s room, knocking on the door lightly before entering.

“Hey, Bucky,” he started. “There’s a really good Christmas movie that you haven’t seen yet that the kid’s want to watch….”


	11. 11th of December

Tommy stared out the window in sheer boredom. “Are we nearly there yet?”

Kate spun around in the driver’s seat to glare at him. “We haven’t even left the motel carpark yet _Tommy_ ”

He sighed again and leant his head the window. Luna, who was sat next to him in the minivan they’d hired shoved him lightly in the arm.

“Lighten up,” she whispered. “You do remember who’s going to be there?”

Tommy smirked slightly at her and met Billy’s eyes briefly across the aisle of the van. He was sat with Teddy. Noh-Varr and David were sat on the row behind them and Kate and America were sat at the front, with Kate driving. The back of the van was piled up with their suitcases and bags of presents for the farmhouse.

All of a sudden, the sound of the opening bars to All I Want For Christmas Is You blasted through the speakers. Everyone groaned when they realised that Kate was playing her Christmas playlist.

“Kate, please no!” Luna pleaded. “Please don’t make us listen to this again”

“Yeah,” David argued. “This is cruelty. You have been playing this playlist on a constant loop since for the last eleven days. We’ve already been driving for a whole day and we have another day ahead of us. And then we have to drive back again in two days’ time”

“As the driver, it is my duty to choose the music for the trip, and I choose my mega Christmas list,” Kate said. The way she said it showed how seriously she apparently took the role. “Now suck it up and enjoy the music”

***

It took them another seven hours of the same half-hour long playlist to reach their hotel on the outskirts of Waverly. By this time, everyone was sick to death of Kate’s playlist. Billy had been forced to create a force field around the minivan to stop Tommy from climbing out the window and running back to New York. Everyone had gone to their rooms and were settling down for bed. Kate flopped down into bed next to America. She turned to look at her girlfriend.

“You didn’t hate the playlist as well, did you?” she asked. America’s eyes flicked away from Kate’s and she cringed slightly. “No, not you too?”

“I’m sorry,” she apologised as Kate buried her head into the pillows. “But we’ve been listening to the same ten songs on loop for two whole days”

Kate groaned slightly, the sound muffled by the pillows. “Yeah, but you love me really”. Both girls froze at her words. They’d been dating for a few months now, but neither of them had said anything yet.

“Yeah,” America agreed after a few awkward moments. “I love you”

Kate leaned over and kissed her girlfriend softly on the lips before snuggling next to her with her face buried in America’s neck. “I love you too”


	12. 12th of December

Kate turned off the engine of the minivan as they pulled up outside the farmhouse. “And here we are,” she announced. She bounded up to the front door and held her hand up to knock, when the door was suddenly opened before she had the chance

“There is no way in hell that I was letting you sing that stupid song again this year,” laughed Clint, who was stood in the doorway. Kate grinned and threw her arms around the other Hawkeye, who was quick to return the hug.

“What song?” Luna asked as she helped lift the heavy bags of presents from the car.

Clint looked over at her in confusion. “And who is this?” he asked.

Luna walked up to Clint with her arms still loaded with bags from the minivan and awkwardly stuck her hand out for him to shake. “Hey, my name’s Luna Maxus. I’m a friend of Tommy’s, our parents know each other. This lot decided to bring me with them here because my parents are away, and I had literally nothing else to do for a week. Nice to meet you”

Clint awkwardly shook her hand back. “You’re weird. I see why they like you”

Luna grinned at him before everyone headed into the house. It took a few minutes to squish everyone into the room, but they were eventually able to manage to fit everyone in the one room. The Young Avengers were crowded around the larger sofa, either sat on the sofa, the arms or the floor in front. Clint, Laura and Wanda were squished onto the smaller one and Bruce was sat on the armchair in the corner. Natasha was sat on the arm next to him, but every time Luna looked over, she had slid a little further down and closer to sitting on his lap. T’Challa, Sharon, Darcy, Bucky, Steve, Sam and Scott had pulled in chairs from the kitchen table and were sat in every free space they could find.

Clint stared at America and Kate for a few moments before loudly clapping his hands together. “You’re dating!” he declared loudly.

“Well done,” Laura congratulated sarcastically. “You didn’t need it pointing out to you this time”

Clint pretended to glare at his wife, who just smiled back. Wanda rolled her eyes at her parents.

Kate and America grinned at each other. “Yeah,” Kate started. “We started dating a few months ago now”

“They’re almost bad as Billy and Teddy,” Tommy complained.

“Try living with Steve and Bucky,” Sam argued.

It was at that point the room descended into chaos as people began to exchange stories about living with overly cute couples.

***

Lila burst through the door when she got home. She gasped loudly as she spotted the Young Avengers and ran over to them, throwing herself at Kate first.

“You guys came!” she exclaimed in excitement.

Kate grinned and hugged the little girl back. “Of course, we came, it’s Christmas. Well, almost anyway”

“And Hanukkah,” Billy added. “That starts today”. Tommy, Luna and Wanda all nodded in agreement.

“Don’t worry,” Wanda reassured. “I won’t let them forget”. She titled her head, gesturing towards the menorah in the window.

Lila eventually detached herself from Kate and went to sit down on the beanbags in the corner with her brothers. Sam’s kittens chose that moment to come running into the room. Mittens launched himself at Lila while Panther was much more interested in the newcomers.

“When did you get cats?” Kate asked suspiciously as Panther rolled around on her lap, claws catching on her purple jumper. “I thought you only had a dog and some poorly named chickens”

“You forgot the horses and ponies with people names,” Clint argued.

“T’Challa got them for me for Christmas,” Sam explained, ignoring Clint. “He decided that I needed to learn why he liked cats so much. Lila has Mittens and that is his sister Panther you’ve got there”

“Somehow, I was able to forget how weird you all are,” David muttered to himself.

Tommy, who was sat next to him, snorted lightly. The two grinned at each other. Billy rolled his eyes at the two of them. Noh-Varr met eyes with Clint, who raised one eyebrow at him.

“Tell you later,” he mouthed. Clint nodded slightly and the two turned their attention back to the conversation.

“So, anybody want any food?” Laura asked. Everyone agreed and began to head towards the kitchen, chatting as they went.

Clint and Noh-Varr hung back from the rest for a second as they all went to the dining room table where there was a large spread of food waiting for them.

“So, Amerikate is definitely a thing now,” Clint commented. “But what about ThinkFast?”

“First of all, I would like to start by saying that is slightly weird hearing you use the ship names I made for my friends,” Noh-Varr pointed out. “And secondly, I don’t know. I was pretty sure they were a thing, but now, I’m just not so sure. What I do know, is everyone knows that David wants to ask Tommy out, except Tommy. And possibly David as well. It’s kinda weird to be honest”

“Are you two discussing the love lives of the Young Avengers?” came a voice from behind them. The two of them turned around to see Luna stood behind them. She was holding a plate of food in one hand and breadstick in the other. “That’s just weird”. She crunched on the end of the breadstick and walked past them and over to the sofa.

Clint and Noh-Varr walked over to the dining room table as everyone else began to walk away. Clint paused for a moment when they reached the table.

Noh-Varr walked into him. “Dude, why’d you stop?”

Clint turned back and looked at Luna for a second. She was chatting loudly with Tommy and Billy, sat between the two of them on the sofa. “Did you ever tell Luna about this place?” Clint asked. “Because she didn’t seem at all confused when she got here”

Noh-Varr froze for a moment, following Clint’s gaze back to Luna. “We didn’t. You know, something hasn’t seemed right about her this entire time, and now, this is getting even weirder. And is it just me, or does she look like Tommy and Billy?”

“And all of them look like Wanda as well,” Clint added. “This is very weird”

“The rest of us have already gotten the Champions, the new teen superhero team we’ve got operating out of our basement,” Noh-Varr explained. “As soon as we’ve figured out what the hell is going on, we’ll tell you”

“I need you to promise me that you will,” Clint said. “Because if this is something that is going to affect my daughter, then I need to know. She’s been through enough already and she’s only just twenty”

“I promise,” Noh-Varr vowed.

The two of them made their way back to the rest of the group as they began to swap bags of presents, ready for Christmas day.

***

The conversation didn’t get brought up again until that night. Clint and Laura were lying in bed, facing each other; Laura’s head resting on her husband’s chest and Clint was holding his wife close to him.

“So that conversation with Noh-Varr earlier seemed pretty serious,” she whispered.

Clint sighed. “It’s not just us, they also think that something weird is going in with Luna, Billy and Tommy”

“And you think it involves Wanda,” Laura finished. She sighed deeply and shifted so she could bury her head between the pillow and Clint’s neck. “God, I hope she’ll be okay”

“Me too”


	13. 13th of December

“Come on guys, really?” Kate whined as she and America reached the minivan. Tommy had sat himself in the driver’s seat, with Luna sat next to him, reading.

“There is no chance in hell that we are letting you put that playlist on again,” Tommy argued.

“That was supposed to start with a ‘sorry’” Luna added, not looking up from her book.

Tommy pretended to glare at her as Kate and America climbed onto the minivan. Kate threw herself down in a spare seat. America placed their bags with everyone else’s before sitting down with her girlfriend. Kate didn’t say anything. Luna plugged Tommy’s phone into the van’s speakers and a song with a fast beat and lyrics only a speedster could keep up with started to play.

“Hey, princess, you okay?” America asked her girlfriend as they pulled out the hotel car park. Kate huffed and turned her back on America, so she was facing out the window instead.

Ten minutes later, Kate turned back around, startling America slightly. “I arranged this whole trip,” she complained. “I coordinated dates with Laura, because we all know that Clint could never be that organised, sorted out the hotels and the route and then made that playlist and what do I get? Nothing but complaints! Not even a thank you! And now I sound like an annoyed parent”

America wordlessly pulled her headphones from her bag and put them in. Kate sighed in defeat; she finally tells her girlfriend what was bothering her, and she immediately starts to ignore her. Typical. However, the next thing America got from her bag was a two-person headphone splitter. She plugged her headphones into one of the jacks and held it out to America.

“They may not appreciate what you did for us princess, but I do,” America said. “Now put that Christmas playlist on”

Kate grinned back at her and plugged her headphones into the other jack and then plugged the splitter into her phone. She pressed play and the beginnings of All I Want For Christmas Is You began to play. Kate looked back up at her girlfriend. “I love you”

“I love you too”

***

A few hours later, Kate had dozed off slightly, still listening to the playlist. Billy leaned over and tapped America on the shoulder.

“Couldn’t help but over hear you two earlier,” he whispered as to not wake the sleeping girl up. “But was that an “I love you” I heard?”

America pretended to glare at her friend. “Why? Worried that we’ll over take you and your boyfriend as the cutest couple here?”

“That is not what I meant!” Billy exclaimed as quietly as he could. “Also, did Kate ever notice that you unplugged your headphones?”

 

 


	14. 14th of December

“What is this?” T’Challa asked as he looked down at the drink that Sharon had just handed him with suspicion.

“It’s eggnog,” she replied. “Do you not have that in Wakanda?”

“No,” he stated, still staring straight at the glass. “What’s in it?”

“Milk, cream sugar and eggs,” Sharon said. “But don’t worry, the bottle said it was non-alcoholic, so you don’t have to worry about two school aged children coming home from school to see you drunk. You don’t want to be _that_ uncle”

“Something tells me that story comes from experience,” Scott joked as he came into the room. He watched as T’Challa took a sip from the drink. “You okay there?”

“This tastes nicer than I thought it would,” T’Challa mused. He took another few sips and refilled his glass before heading into the living room. He placed the glass down on the coffee table and began to read a book.

Sharon watched him as he sat down. “You know,” she whispered to Scott, leaning over to him as she spoke. “He sits like that all the time, like he’s still on the throne. Just can’t seem to relax. But I know his secret: Avril Lavigne”. She winked slyly at Scott before she walked over and joined T’Challa on the sofa.

“I am so going to use that against him at a later date,” he muttered to himself before he followed the two of them over to the sofas.

***

When Laura and Natasha walked into the room, T’Challa was passed out on the sofa and humming slightly to himself.

“Is he purring?” Natasha asked. “Like, actually purring?”

“I think so,” Sharon laughed. “He really liked the eggnog and it seems to have sent him into a mildly comatose state. There’s a joke to be made here about cats and milk”

“How much of that has he had to drink?” Laura asked. Sharon sat up a little straighter, her attention now focused on Laura’s worried tone.

“Like a whole bottle of it,” she asked nervously. “Why?”

Laura’s eyes bugged open in shock as Natasha started to laugh. She rested her hand on Laura’s shoulder as ended up doubled over with laughter.

“What’s wrong?” Scott asked. “He can’t be drunk, the bottle said it was non-alcoholic”

“Because Natasha tops it up with her really strong Russian vodka,” Laura explained.

Sharon joined Natasha in with the laughter. She jumped on from her seat and held her phone out to T’Challa’s face and took her photo. She pulled it back to herself and rapidly typed something before sticking it back in her pocket.

“What did you just do?” Scott asked sceptically.

“Snapchat the whole thing to Maria Hill,” Sharon smiled. “She’s going to find it hilarious. Although, if it’s that strong, how come you haven’t drunk it all already, Nat?”

“I don’t know, it’s just been making me feel kinda sick recently,” she shrugged. “Good thing though, otherwise we never would’ve seen this”

Everyone stared at T’Challa in amused silence for a few moments.

“We’re never going to let this go, are we?” Laura asked. Everyone else agreed, while T’Challa napped on, oblivious to how much fun everyone was making of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was this chapter just an excuse to write T'Challa drunk? Yes. Yes it was


	15. 15th of December

Kate was sat staring at the envelope on the table in front of her as America approached. She sighed and slumped down a little in her seat, her eyes never leaving the manila envelope embossed with curling red letters. Kate’s name was carefully printed on the top, followed by the warehouse’s address.

“Is everything okay?” America asked.

Kate’s eyes flickered up when she heard America, snapping her out of her daze. “It’s an invitation from my stepmom,” she explained. “She and Dad want me to come back home for Christmas. I didn’t even tell them I was here. I guess they saw the electricity bill for a supposedly empty warehouse and figured it out”

America sat on the side of the table opposite to her girlfriend and slid the invitation across the table. Kate reached over and grabbed her girlfriend’s hand as America read the invitation. She raised her eyebrows in amusement when she got to one part.

“They’ve heard you’ve been seeing someone new, so you should feel free to bring your boyfriend,” she giggled. “Princess, is there something you haven’t told me?”

Kate groaned and hit her head against the kitchen table. “I never came out to my family,” she explained, her voice muffled slightly by the table. “They weren’t exactly the most accepting and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. They must have just presumed that me dating someone automatically meant a guy”

“So, a possibly homophobic family and you’re very racist, but passive aggressive over it, grandmother who hates that you’re half-Korean,” America said, a smirk beginning to appear on her face. “Princess, if you want to go see your family that you can’t stand for a few days this Christmas, then believe me, I’m happy to go with you”

Kate lifted her head up, matching America’s smirk. “You’d be up for that?”

“That honestly sounds like the best meet the family situation ever,” she laughed. “Besides, do you think they’ll look past the fact that I’m not a guy long enough to show me some embarrassing baby photos?”

“America!” Kate whined. “I knew you’d have a secret agenda with this”. The two girls laughed a bit, as Kate’s grip on America’s hand tightened slightly. “Are you really okay with coming?”

“Yes,” she reassured. She leaned over the table and softly kissed Kate on the lips. “Now, how racist did you say your grandmother was again? I feel like I need to be prepared”

Kate snorted. “The first time I met one of my cousins, he thought he’d be the bigger person than her and learn some basic greetings in my mom’s native language. Only he started speaking in Mandarin, as she’d genuinely told him that I was half Chinese”

America stared at her in shock. “Wow. That’s bad”

The two carried on laughing as Kate pulled out her phone and texted the phone number her stepmom had put on the invitation to let her know that she’d be delighted to come around this Christmas.


	16. 16th of December

“So, what are we watching?” Bucky asked. It was a Saturday, and everyone had been forcibly gathered in the living room at Lila’s command. It was already getting squished in there and he wasn’t sure how they were going to fit anyone else in before Christmas.

“Every Christmas movie ever,” Lila replied. “Well, Mommy said that we wouldn’t have time to watch all of them, but you still have to watch some”

“She did make us watch a load last Christmas,” Steve mentioned. “She decided that me and Wanda needed to get caught up on all the Christmas movies we hadn’t seen. And now it seems that it’s your turn”

Lila grinned at Steve and nodded enthusiastically in agreement. She turned to where Clint was attempting to put one of the DVDs into the player and she began to explain to him why the DVD he was about to put in was the wrong one.

Bucky took the momentary distraction to lean over and whisper to Steve. “Are these movies any good?” he asked.

Steve grinned at his boyfriend and pulled him closer into a tight hug, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Don’t worry, you’ll love them,” he reassured as everyone settled down to watch the movie.

***

By late that evening, Lila had gotten them all to watch The Polar Express, The Muppet Christmas Carol and The Snowman. Despite how cautious he’d been earlier, Bucky had ended up enjoying all of the movies, laughing along with Lila, who had ended up sat between him and Steve at some point during the day.

“Mom, please can we watch one more?” Cooper begged. He smiled innocently at Laura, knowing fully well that both he and Lila should’ve gone to bed over an hour ago. Laura raised one eyebrow at him and he quickly jumped to his feet and dashed out the room, taking his little sister with him as he went.

“Well that was impressive,” Sharon commented. “If this whole accords debacle ever blows over, could I possibly borrow you and that look in some CIA meetings?”

Laura laughed loudly and nodded enthusiastically. The others began to laugh along with her and Sharon as well.

“That is something that I’d pay to watch,” Clint laughed. “Hey, I know we already sent the kids up, but do you guys want to watch another movie?”

Everyone nodded in agreement and Laura got and began to flick through the DVD cases on the shelf. She pulled one off the shelf and offered it to the others. “Love Actually?” she asked. She shot Clint a mock glare when she saw him pout. “Hey, the only reason you don’t want to watch it is because you’re scared you’ll cry in front of the others, just like you’ve cried every other time we’ve watched it”

“A film that can make Clint cry?” Natasha smiled. “Count me in”

The others were quick to agree, so Clint was left outvoted as they put the DVD on, all settling back down again to watch the movie.


	17. 17th of December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, here's all the names used in the chat
> 
>  
> 
> BestBowWoman: Kate
> 
> LesbiHonest: America
> 
> WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace: Billy
> 
> green_giant: Teddy
> 
> gottago_fast: Tommy
> 
> MrKnowItAll: David
> 
> NoShirt_NoService: Noh-Varr
> 
> Luuunaaa: Luna

**NoShirt_NoService:** Whoever’s in charge of the names of the group, please can you change mine

 **BestBowWoman:** Not until you remember to where a shirt whenever we go out anywhere, we keep getting kicked out because your top half is naked

 **MrKnowItAll:** *wear

 **BestBowWoman:** Hence your name

 **LesbiHonest:** Is Luna coming round for Christmas????????????

 **green_giant:** punctuation much

 **LesbiHonest:** At least I’ve heard of capital letters

 **gottago_fast:** Yeahsheisifthatsokaywitheveryone

 **MrKnowItAll:** Tommy, you type like you talk. Remember to include spaces

 **gottago_fast:** Sorry, this better

 **MrKnowItAll:** Much

**WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace added Luna**

**BestBowWoman changed Luna to Luuunaaa**

**Luuunaaa:** ???

 **BestBowWoman:** What, you can’t not have a weird name on this group chat

 **LesbiHonest:** Now that everyone’s here, we need to discuss who’s in charge of what on Christmas day

**gottago_fast has left the group**

**NoShirt_NoService has added gottago_fast to the group**

**gottago_fast has left the group**

**Luuunaaa had added gottago_fast to the group**

**gottago_fast has left the group**

**WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace has added gottago_fast to the group**

**WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace:** TOMMY, STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM CHORES LIKE YOU DO FROM YOUR PROBLEMS

 **LesbiHonest:** And your feelings

 **BestBowWoman:** *looks at @MrKnowItAll*

 **gottago_fast:** ????

 **MrKnowItAll:** shuddup

 **BestBowWoman:** *shut up

 **MrKnowItAll:** HEY

 **BestBowWoman:** See, it’s not nice, is it?

 **LesbiHonest:** We do need to sort out who’s doing what in the way of food on Christmas day. It would be easiest if we worked in pairs

 **WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace:** I call @green_giant

 **BestBowWoman:** I call @LesbiHonest

 **gottago_fast:** I call @Luuunaaa

 **MrKnowItAll:** Then I call @NoShirt_NoService I guess

 **NoShirt_NoService:** Thanks David

 **BestBowWoman:** Me and America can do the turkey and potatoes

 **green_giant:** @WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace veg?

 **WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace:** yep

 **LesbiHonest:** Capital letters…

 **NoShirt_NoService:** Do you want to do desserts @MrKnowItAll?

 **MrKnowItAll:** Sure

 **gottago_fast:** That’s means me and @Luuunaaa are on clearing up

 **Luuunaaa:** Eyyy, washing up duty with a speedster, piece of cake

 **LesbiHonest:** Well I’m glad that’s sorted

 **BestBowWoman:** Now we’ve sorted that mess out on the group, want to come back upstairs, I think the others are leaving soon

 **WhiteLipsPaleFaceImGayOuterSpace:** WRONG CHAT BISHOP

 **BestBowWoman:** Futz **  
**


	18. 18th of December

“Natasha, are you okay?” Laura asked, knocking lightly on Bruce and Nat’s door. “Everyone’s downstairs waiting for you to start the movie. I came up to see if you were okay”

There was no reply, so Laura opened the door and cautiously entered the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Nat wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but the bathroom door was propped open. She stuck her head round the door and saw Natasha sat on the floor, clutching something tightly in her hands. She was holding it so tight, her knuckles were turning white. Her face was pale, and she seemed to be staring straight ahead in shock. Laura slid down on the floor next to her and pried her hands open. She gasped slightly when she saw what her friend was holding onto.

“But how?” Laura questioned. “I thought that was impossible. The Red Room-”

“I took a hit in training not long before I left the compound,” Nat began to explain, her voice ever so slightly shaking. “They were testing some new weapons nearby. Somebody had made a miscalculation and it misfired, shooting an energy blast three hundred the times what it was meant to, straight into my side. They rushed me to Helen Cho and put me in the regeneration cradle. Maybe that fixed this too”

“Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” Laura asked her friend.

Nat stared at her hands for a few moments, unsure of what to say. “This is a good thing, I think,” she eventually replied. “This is another thing, another part of a normal life those people tried to take away from me, and another thing I’ve managed to claim back”. She smirked slightly. “This also means I definitely am going to outdo Bruce’s Christmas present from last year”

Laura sighed at the plotting look on Nat’s face, but she was also relieved; she seemed to have snapped out of her panic. Laura stood up and held her hand out to help Natasha up. The two women left the bathroom and Laura led Nat to her and Clint’s room at the other end of the landing.

“What are we doing?” Nat asked.

“Well, if you intend on outdoing Bruce, then we need to wrap that up, make it look special,” Laura explained.

“But what about the movie?”

Laura paused by the stairs and heard the opening bars of Frozen. “They’ve started without us anyway”

“Why are they watching Frozen while Lila’s at school?”

“That’s the only time when you can safely watch Frozen,” Laura explained. “Now come my apprentice and let me teach you the ancient art of decorative gift wrapping, something which you are going to need to become very good at in the next few years”  



	19. 19th of December

“I can’t believe that you managed to convince us to go out on a Tuesday,” Billy joked. “It’s not as hard on the weekend, but weekdays? Well done Bishop”

“Not my fault that you and Teddy are a pair of old grandpas already,” Kate countered. The two of them were the first outside the nightclub, where the Christmas party Kate had managed to convince the others to go to, in the early hours of the morning. “The others were a lot easier to convince than you. Speaking of, where are they?”

As if on cue, the others came out the door at that moment. America and David were helping Noh-Varr pull silly string out of his hair. Teddy was helping Tommy, who was half asleep and drunk. Billy sighed when he saw the state Tommy was in. He walked over to him and flicked his hand against his forehead, blue lights briefly flashing around his fingertips.

“That woke him up,” he said. “It should’ve sobered him up as well”

Tommy grinned and untangled himself from Teddy. “Hey! We should go carolling. That would be fun,” he half yelled. “Aw, do you guys not want to come? Well, I’m gonna go anyway. And you can’t catch me, I’m too fast”

The others watched as Tommy “ran” down the street, barely faster than a normal person’s walk. Everyone stood in silence, too shocked to respond.

“So maybe that didn’t actually sober him up, but at least his powers don’t seem to be working,” Teddy commented, trying to look on the brighter side.

“We should probably go stop him,” David said.

“Or at the very least, we should watch,” Noh-Varr joked.

They all started to walk after Tommy down the street, only having to walk at a normal pace as he was still “running” in slow motion.

***

Tommy had calmed down significantly by the time they had reached the warehouse. They were just walking through the door when Tommy froze in place.

“What’s wrong?” America asked, already annoyed with him.

“I didn’t get to go carolling,” he whined.

Billy sighed and headed over to Tommy. “I have an idea,” he said. “I’ll take him to Luna’s and let him sing there. Her parents know him, so he can sleep on her couch”. He led Tommy down the alley and out onto the street. He did a lap of the block before he reached the alley again. He made sure that everyone was inside before he led Tommy down to Luna’s hidden apartment. He knocked on the door rapidly until Luna opened the door.

“He’s drunk and wants to sing Christmas carols,” Billy said as fast as he could. “And now he’s yours for the night. He can sleep on the couch”. With that, he ditched Tommy with Luna, running away in manner much more in character for Tommy than him, just as the former began to “sing”.


	20. 20th of December

“We’ll be back in a couple of weeks,” Thor promised his father. “I will help you deal with Loki then”

Odin frowned. “That time cannot come soon enough. Especially given his current, um, state,” he replied, leaning over to whisper the last part to Thor so that the others wouldn’t hear.

Jane and the others watched the two from a short distance away. “Do you know what’s going on with them?” Jane asked Sif, who she was stood next to.

“I do not know,” Sif confessed. “Something has happened to Loki recently, but neither of them have told anyone else what is going on. I don’t believe that we’ll find out before you return from Midgard”

Jane laughed with Sif as Thor and Odin walked back over to the group. “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Ready when you are,” Jane replied. As Heimdall opened the Bifrost, Jane turned back to Sif and hugged her tightly. The warrior stiffened for a moment before she returned the hug. Jane let go and followed Thor, Selvig and Ian to the Bifrost. The Warriors Three, Sif, Odin and Heimdall all watched as the others disappeared.

“So, Sif finally made a friend,” Heimdall joked. Sif lightly punched her brother in the arm before storming away back down the rainbow bridge.

***

The Bifrost opened up in the middle of a snow covered field in Iowa, the heat scorching a melted circle into the ground and the snow still falling melting on contact with the ground. Darcy threw herself at Ian when she saw him, locking her arms around his neck.

“I missed you,” she exclaimed, reaching up to kiss her boyfriend. “It has been a really long three weeks without you”

“I missed you too,” Ian replied. He locked his arms with hers as they headed across the field towards the farmhouse.

Selvig sighed as he watched them go. He turned to look at Jane and Thor. “Remind me, how many couples are we staying with over Christmas, when couples are known to act their most cute?”

“Eight,” Jane answered. Selvig sighed again. “Hey, at least we can we attempt a few little experiments somewhere other than in the house, Tony managed to get us all banned from doing anything indoors when he somehow accidently set a pot plant on fire. But, apparently Tony is bringing that Spider-Kid or something and he’s meant to be a little nerd”

“Well, then this could be an entertaining couple of weeks,” Selvig joked as he headed towards the house, Thor and Jane a couple of steps behind him. “Now, which room am I in?”

***

A few hours later, once everyone had gotten settled in to their respective rooms, the whole house was settled around the table. Everyone was finding the arguments between new roommates, Scott and Selvig, highly amusing.

“All I asked for you to move just one of your many ant farms over slightly, then I’ll have enough room for my books,” Selvig argued.

“No, I can’t,” Scott bickered. “Because all the farms are connected together and if I move one of them, they’ll get all whiney, especially the queen”

“Ask what the queen is called,” Laura asked, biting the inside of her lip to keep herself from giggling.

“Antastasia,” Scott replied.

“Oh my god!”


	21. 21st of December

“You four are the actual worst, you know that, right?” David checked as he walked into the shopping centre. “Christmas is in four days and you haven’t done _any_ shopping yet. That’s one day for every idiot I’m walking with right now. Like, Tommy, Noh-Varr, I can believe that you two would be this stupid. But, Billy and Teddy, I expected better from you”

“Thanks again for coming with us,” Tommy said, stopping David before he could carry on with his lecture. He wrapped his arm around David’s shoulder and shook him slightly. “You really are a good friend”

David shot him a murderous look. The two of them maintained eye contact as David held his glare and Tommy gave him an evil smirk, his arm still looped around David’s shoulder.

“The tension between these two is unbelievable,” Noh-Varr whispered as he leant over to Billy and Teddy. He raised his voice to get the others’ attention. “Come on, we need to go”

***

When they reached the first shop, they just stood at the door and stared at the chaos in horror.

“We’re never going to find anything in here,” Billy complained.

“And I thought it was bad three weeks ago,” David whispered to himself.

Shoppers were running around everywhere, desperate to try and grab last minute presents for their families. As they grabbed for things from the shelves, fights were beginning to break out and the poor employees were hopelessly attempting to maintain some form of peace.

“Meet me by the tills and have your cards ready,” Tommy ordered. He zipped away, leaving the others behind in a gust of wind. Time seemed to slow down for Tommy as he whizzed around the store. Everyone was stood in place as if they were frozen in time. He checked the lists he’d stolen from the others’ pockets and whipped around the store grabbing things from shelves. Moments later he was back at the front of the store where everyone else was stood by the tills.

“You idiot,” Billy whisper yelled as he hit Tommy round the back of his head. “Do you want us to get caught?”

“I got your stuff,” Tommy argued rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head.

“Let’s just pay and go,” David said quickly before a fight could break about between the two, not wanting to add more to the employee’s workload.

***

“You guys were quick,” Kate commented as she watched the others walk back into the warehouse. “Please tell me that you’re not going to go shopping again on Christmas Eve”

“Well,” Tommy started, a smug grin on his face. “Quick is definitely one word for it”


	22. 22nd of December

“Mr Stark, it’s very nice of you to take us away for Christmas,” May started. “But where are we going?”

Pepper, Tony and Peter all smiled to each other.

“We can’t tell you until we get there, Aunt May,” Peter explained. “But we’re nearly there now. I think”. He leaned forward and tapped Tony on the shoulder. “Hey, are we nearly yet?”

Tony groaned. “This is like when I brought you here over the summer all over again. Yes, we’re nearly there, which you would’ve noticed, if you’d been paying attention to the road signs. We left Waverly two minutes ago”

Peter sat down in his seat properly and looked out the window. It was only a few minutes later that they turned down the small private road that led to the farm house. May gasped as they came through the trees. Pepper smiled; she remembered her first time seeing the place, and it looked even more idyllic now that it was covered in a fine layer of snow. As they pulled up outside the house, the door was thrown open. A figure with long brown hair that May couldn’t quite make out was stood in the doorway, watching them as they grabbed their bags. Peter was the first up the stairs and he and the girl hugged like old friends. When she pulled away, May recognised who she was.

“Wanda Maximoff?” she exclaimed. She spun around so she was facing Tony. “Your idea of a relaxing Christmas away from New York is with the fugitive Avengers in the middle of Iowa?”

“Yes,” Tony replied calmly. “And they’re all lovely, so don’t worry”

May cautiously followed the others inside the farm house, looking around her as she went. Scott Lang was sat by the window, watching the end of the little track that had led them through the woods, with a small girl sat beside him, also staring at the woods.

“Are you two okay?” Peter asked. “Scott? Lila?”

The little girl, Lila, looked over at him with a mildly annoyed expression. “We’re waiting for Cassie and the others,” she explained, before going back to staring out the window.

May leant over to Peter. “Who is that?” she whispered.

Peter smirked slightly. “I’ll show you where we’re staying and then I’ll explain”. He and May headed off up the stairs towards the attic bedrooms. The other waited patiently, all silently staring at the ceiling.

Clint began to quietly countdown. “3…2…1…”

“Wait, what?!” May shrieked loudly, causing everyone downstairs to laugh loudly.

“This will never stop being funny,” Wanda laughed.

***

Scott and Lila stayed on watch for another two hours. By this time, everyone had gathered downstairs and May had gotten over most of her shock and was already getting on well with Laura.

“THEY’RE HERE!” Lila squealed when she spotted a car come through the trees. Scott leapt to his feet and ran out the door. He stood in the snow for a moment, waiting for the car to stop. It had barely had chance when a small girl, about Lila’s age, threw herself out the back door and at him. He picked her up from the ground and hugged her close to him. The little girl clung on tight to him with her arms locked around his neck. A woman with short black hair stepped out the door after her and walked over to Scott. She was somehow able to hug Scott around the little girl.

The other doors of the car opened, and three more people got out. Tony stiffened when he saw one of the people; an old man with messy grey hair. He and the others all began to head indoors, Scott still holding the little girl and his arm wrapped around the woman.

“Pym,” Tony greeted coldly when they got in.

The old man glared at him. “Stark,” he replied in the same cold tone as Tony. “Lovely to see you here. Although, nobody mentioned that you would”. At his last sentence, he turned to glare at Scott.

“Hey!” Scott argued. “Why are you only looking at me? Everyone else helped hide this from you as well. Even Hope!”

The woman stood next to Scott playfully glared at him and hit him in the arm. The little girl in Scott’s arms squirmed slightly in his grasp and he gently lowered her to the floor.

“Cassie!” Lila squealed as she ran to the other girl, who May presumed was called Cassie. The two girls met in the middle of the room and hugged each other tightly. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” Cassie replied. She looked around the room at all the new people that had arrived since the beginning of December. “Who are all these people?”

“I feel like introductions are in order,” the old man that Tony had referred to as Pym. “I’m Hank Pym and this is my daughter Hope,” he said as he pointed to the woman stood with Scott.

“And this is _my_ daughter Cassie,” Scott introduced as he ruffled the little girl’s hair. He pointed to the other two people that had come in from the car. “And that’s Maggie and Paxton, Cassie’s mom and stepdad”

“I’m Sharon Carter and this is T’Challa, who didn’t know eggnog was alcoholic, which led to me getting a very funny video,” introduced another woman. “He’s also the king of Wakanda”

“And Tony decided to bring Spider-Man and his Aunt May,” Pepper added.

“So, Spider-Man is more a Spider-Kid,” Hope joked. Scott grinned at her and hugged her closer to him. “So, I’m presuming I’m staying with Scott, but what about everyone else? Are we all actually going to fit?”

“Hank is taking one of the spare beds in Steve and Bucky’s room,” Laura explained. “And Maggie and Paxton are having the sofa bed down here”

“Good luck with that,” Bruce snorted.

Natasha grinned from next to him. “I do not miss that thing”

Laura glared at the two of them. Bruce had the decency to look shameful, Natasha just smiled innocently, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

“So, how’d you get spider powers?” Cassie asked Peter.

Everyone turned to him expectantly. “Well,” he started. “It started when I went with school to an exhibition about radiology…”

***

“I still think that my origin story is better than yours’” Peter argued as he and Wanda headed up the stairs. It was late, and they were two of the last ones to go to bed.

“No way,” she half yelled, trying to be quiet. “Magic gem from space that was used to experiment on me that gave me these literally insane powers trumps radioactive spider bites you and suddenly you can climb walls like a spider. Seriously, you had to make your web fluid in a high school chem lab. I win”

He sighed and walked off to the secret door up to the attic. She smirked at Peter as he walked away, before heading towards her room. As Wanda passed Lila’s room, she heard a muffled muttering coming from the inside. She threw the door open and watched as the two little girls dived under their covers to hide from the older girl.

“Why are you two still awake?” Wanda demanded.

Cassie and Lila tried to look sheepish. “Sorry Wanda”

Wanda grinned as she left. “Go to sleep”. She left the room and headed to her room next door. Sharon was tucked under the covers in her bed on the far side of the room.

“Please tell me they’re actually going to sleep,” Sharon asked desperately.

Wanda snorted as she got into her own bed. She had just laid down when she heard the two girls start talking again.

“I’m going to take that as a no”


	23. 23rd of December

“Well, this could go either horribly wrong or be a loving family reunion,” America mused as Kate pulled the car up outside the Bishop family residence, which was practically a mansion.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Kate said. “They’re awful. Why did we come again?”

America walked round to the boot of the car and grabbed their bags. “It was your idea princess”

“I know,” Kate complained as they walked up to the front door. “I just can’t believe that I managed to talk myself into this”

America laughed as they rang the doorbell. A few moments later, a young woman, only three or four years older than Kate and America opened the door. “Kate,” she said. She reached over and hugged Kate, who didn’t return the sentiment. “Oh, it is lovely to see you”

“Heather,” Kate greeted coldly. “I’m guessing that we’re in my old room, unless you’ve changed it”

“Oh, don’t worry, everything is exactly as you left it,” Heather reassured. She looked past Kate to where America was stood, scowling. “Kate, I thought you were bringing your new boyfriend with you. I’m really sorry, but it’ll just take the maid a few moments to make up one of the beds in the spare room next to Kate’s. We didn’t know we’d be needing it”

America let out an exasperated gay sigh. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” she corrected. “I’m her girlfriend”

“Oh,” Heather stammered out in surprise. “Well, Kate can show you where the two of you are staying. You girls come join us in the main living room when you’re settled in”

Heather walked away, leaving Kate and America stood on the doorstep by themselves. Kate sighed in exasperation as she watched Heather leave. “I hate her,” she muttered. “This way”. She led America into the house, slamming the door behind them.

America followed her girlfriend as she wound her way up the elaborate staircase in that took up most of the room in the large entrance hall. They reached the top and Kate grabbed her hand, grasping it tight as she hurried down the halls until they reached a door at the end of a corridor. Kate shoved the door open. “Wow,” America whispered when she saw the room. “You really do like the colour purple”

Kate threw their bags down on the luxury purple sheets that covered the king size bed, before flopping down and joining them. “I thought we’d established this years ago,” she joked.

America grinned as she walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. “You ready to go down and see your family?” she asked.

Kate groaned and grabbed one of the pillows, pressing it over her face. “I hate them. I don’t know why I agreed to come back. My grandmother hates me, I’ve barely spoken to my sister in years and my father married someone that I went to school with. Seriously, Heather was a senior when I was a freshman”

America lay down so she was lying parallel to her girlfriend. “I get what you’re saying, but there’s food down there”

That was able to make Kate move.

***

“Hey everyone,” Kate said as she walked into the room hand-in-hand with America.

An elderly woman was sat in an overstuffed armchair that was covered in a floral pattern. It seemed out of place in the more modern looking room, as if it had been placed there specifically for her visit. She took one look at the girls’ intertwined hands and sighed. “Of course _this_ had to happen”

“Nice to see you too Gran,” Kate greeted.

A young woman, a couple of years older than Heather stood up gracefully from her seat to come over and hug Kate, pulling her away from America slightly. She looked like an older version of Kate, meaning that it was probably her older sister, Susan. “It is lovely to see you again darling,” she said, her voice rather high pitched. She released Kate from her grasp. “Isn’t it honey?”

A man who was sat on the same sofa Susan had just stood from looked up when she spoke. “Katherine,” he greeted coldly.

“Alan,” Kate replied with the same sentiment. “Great to see you too. Everyone, this is America Chavez, my girlfriend”

America waved lightly at the group, feeling as out of place as the armchair. Susan and Heather were the only ones to wave back. Kate looped her arm around America’s waist and led her to an unoccupied sofa. They were sat opposite Kate’s dad, Heather, Susan and Alan. Kate’s grandmother watched them with a suspicious gaze.

“So, where did you two meet?” Heather asked, attempting to break the tension in the room.

“The S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy,” Kate replied. He dad rolled his eyes and scoffed slightly at the mention of the school, but Kate ignored him. “We were roommates, and we absolutely hated each other at first. But, we got on eventually. We and a friend, Billy, were able to help some of the other student escape when Hydra attacked three years ago”

“But we didn’t start dating until a few months ago,” America added.

“What have you been up to since S.H.I.E.L.D. fell?” Susan asked.

America and Kate exchanged a worried look, neither sure how to answer that. “We’ve, erm, kept busy. You know, work and stuff,” Kate said, omitting their superhero activities.

“Catching up with old friends,” America said, jumping in before Kate could say anything incriminating. “All the ones that didn’t turn out to be Nazis”

“Boy, there were a few,” Kate muttered under her breath. Kate’s family didn’t know how to react.

“So, America,” Kate’s grandmother asked, spitting out the girl’s name like it was some sort of curse word. “What do your mother and father think of you dating another girl?”

“Well, both of my Moms are dead, so I don’t know what they think,” she explained. The tension settled back over the room, not that it had ever really left.

“I think dinner will be done in an hour,” Heather said. “Susan, why don’t you give America a little tour of the place? And Kate, you and me can go have a little catch up, it feel like it’s been years since we last spoke”

***

“And this is where we host parties,” Susan said as she led America into a large room, practically a ballroom. She paused to turn back and look at the younger girl, who was walking along behind her, a bored look on her face. “You hate it here, don’t you?”

America’s eyes snapped up when Susan spoke to her. “Honestly, I’d rather be anywhere but here. But Kate wanted to come, and I knew how badly she got on with her father and I didn’t want her to have to come back alone”

Susan smiled at her. “I’m really glad that my little sister has someone as good to her as you in her life. Heaven knows she won’t find it here”

America blushed slightly. “Hey, maybe we should go back to the others now. I have a feeling that she needs rescuing from Heather”

Susan laughed loudly at America’s words. “Agreed. That woman is insane. You would not believe how annoying she was as a sophomore”

“I knew she was younger than you,” America exclaimed. “That’s just weird”. The two women laughed as they left the room, going to find the others.

***

“-oh, and these are from when your father and I went on holiday last year,” Heather prattled on, not even noticing that Kate had zoned out. She continued flicking though the photo album while Kate stared blankly at the wall opposite.

“Hello,” Susan said, announcing her and America’s presence as she opened the door to the study. Kate’s head shot up when she heard the door open, a smile spreading across her face when she saw her girlfriend.

“Hey you,” she smiled.

“Hey yourself,” America replied. She dropped herself down on the sofa next to Kate and looped her arm round her shoulder.

Susan smiled at the two and sat down opposite. She looked over at photo albums Heather had open. “Hey Heather, do you know where the photos of Kate are?”

***

“And this one is from when we went skiing with our mom in Boulder,” Susan said. “Kate was about seven in that photo. As you can see, the obsession with purple started early”

“It really did,” America muttered in awe. Kate groaned and shoved her face into a cushion.

A small knock came from the door. Everyone looked up to see a young girl in a chef’s outfit was stood awkwardly at the door. “Hi, I was sent to tell you that dinner is about to be served”

“Thank you Alice,” Heather said. “I’ll be down in a minute. Susan, Kate, America, do you think you three could possibly put the photo albums away? I need to go find Derek, Alan and Brenda”. She swanned out of the room, leaving the other three girls in the study alone.

“I hate her,” Susan hissed as the door closed behind Heather. Kate and America nodded in agreement.

***

To say dinner was awkward was an understatement. The first ten minutes were spent sat at the table in complete silence, the only sound in the room was the clattering of cutlery on plates. Eventually, it was Kate’s grandmother, Brenda, that broke the silence.

“You know, out of the two of you girls, I always thought if one of you turned out to be a lesbian, it would be Susan,” she said. Susan choked on her drink, while Kate’s hand on her knife changed its hold to one much better suited for throwing.

“I’m not a lesbian, I’m bi,” Kate corrected. “I like men and women”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” her father, Derek, argued. “That’s not a thing, you’re not bi”

“Yes, I am,” Kate hissed. “In every sense of the word; racial, lingual and sexual!”

“So, did you see what Secretary Ross said today about the Young Avengers?” Alan asked, rapidly changing the subject. “Apparently, he believes that they should be locked up for not following the Accords”

“And so they should,” Brenda said gleefully. “Them and those new kids, what are they? Ah, yes, the Champions!”

“Yes, just this year a load of these teen heroes completely ruined one of the building sites one of my business partners had invested a lot of money in,” Derek half yelled.

“What do you girls think?” Heather asked innocently.

America looked over at Kate for support, but her girlfriend’s face was obscured by the large wine glass she was taking a long and desperate drink from. A few moments later, she had completely emptied the glass of its contents.

“Well, that was bigger than I expected,” she laughed. “I’m just going to use the bathroom”. She got up from her seat and dashed out of the room before anyone else could say anything. Another ten minutes of uncomfortable silence passed before America spoke.

“I’m just going to see where she got to,” she said as she stood from her chair. She got a few steps away before stopping and turning back for a moment. “Also, I love the Young Avengers”. And with that, she ran after her girlfriend.

***

“And then what happened?” Tommy asked as he shoved another slice of pizza into his mouth. Kate nudged America in the side from where the two were sat together on the smaller sofa, encouraging her girlfriend to continue the story.

“I found Kate in her room, grabbing our bags, so I flew us round to the car and we just drove home,” America explained.

“And has anyone noticed yet?” Luna asked, grabbing a slice of pizza before Tommy could eat them all.

“Susan sent me a text saying that she doesn’t blame me,” Kate laughed.

“Sorry that your family Christmas didn’t work out,” Billy said.

“Don’t be, you are my family,” she replied, earning a round of boos and yells over the cliché.


	24. 24th of December

“Do we have to take another Christmas photo?” Tony complained.

“That was last year,” Laura argued. “There are more people here this year, so we’re doing it again. Even Bobbi and Hunter are coming over”

“You’re not getting out of this one Tony,” Pepper scolded as she fixed her hair so it didn’t obscure her jumper. She had somehow managed to get away with a non-ugly Christmas jumper, unlike the rest.

“Nobody else is getting out of this,” Sharon pointed out as she fixed the elf ears on her hat. “Not even the dog. I think that the kids are trying to sort him out”

As if on cue, Lucky came crashing into the room followed by Wanda and Peter. Peter was wearing his web-shooters and began rapid firing webbing at the running dog. A bit eventually caught the dog on the back of his leg, trapping him against the back of the sofa. Wanda dove for the dog and pinned him down before he could make a move.

“Lila, I need those antlers now!” she yelled, holding the dog still. Seconds later, her younger siblings came running into the room.

“I’ve got them,” Lila shouted, plucking one of the two identical pairs off Nate’s head and handing them to Wanda, who quickly secured on the dog.

“Cooper, hand me those scissors,” Wanda ordered. Cooper passed her a pair of scissors from the side and she cut the dog lose from the webbing still sticking him to the sofa. The dog scampered off as soon as he was free.

“Nice to see your Avengers training is going to good use,” Tony joked. Wanda glared at him from where she was still lying on the floor. “You can’t look threatening when you’re wearing tinsel, Wanda”

“Okay, is everyone ready?” Clint yelled. “Bobbi and Hunter have just pulled up outside, so when you’re done, go wait outside”. He walked past the living room and opened up the door to the porch. “And that wasn’t a suggestion”

He walked out the door to meet Bobbi and Hunter, with Lucky the One-Eyed Farm Dog trotting behind him. Everyone else was quick to follow them and soon the whole group was gathered outside in the snow, wearing various festive outfits. Clint was wrestling with the camera’s tripod and Hunter was arranging people into position. He was dramatically pointing at them as he did, and Skye, who was balanced on his hip, was copying him with the same level of sass and enthusiasm.

“Hey Peter,” he said. “You’re blocking Sharon a bit, can you get a little lower?”

Wanda used her powers to dig a wide hole in the snow in front of him. He grinned at her before sitting down in the hole. She quickly buried his legs in the snow and Cooper, Lila, Nate and Cassie all sat in the snow mound surrounding him.

“I think we’re ready,” Clint said.

Everyone jostled into their final positions as Clint set the timer on the camera. As the lens shut they all simultaneously yelled “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and thank you to everyone who has stuck with this fic

**Author's Note:**

> It's finally the 1st of December!! I've working on this fic for a few months now and I really hope that everyone enjoys it. There will be a new chapter everyday, although I can't guarantee that they'll go up at the same time everyday. 
> 
> Also, if you need a laugh, have a look at the cover for this on Wattpad. My username is kamalaforpresident


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